“ECM – a Cultural Archaeology” is the title of a major exhibition at Munich’s Haus der Kunst, which runs from November 23 to February 10. Curated by the museum’s director Okwui Enwezor, together with Markus Müller, the exhibition focuses on, amongst other subjects, the origins of ECM and the label’s strong roots in jazz and improvisation. These are explored through photography and films including “See The Music”, director Theo Kotulla’s documentary with quintet performances by Marion Brown (alto saxophone), Leo Smith (trumpet and flugelhorn), Manfred Eicher (double bass), Thomas Stöwsand (cello, bassoon), and Fred Braceful (drums, percussion) in 1971. Other films include rare Norwegian footage of Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen in a performance documented immediately before the landmark 1974 recording of the “Belonging” album.

London-based film collective the Otolith Group pays tribute to Codona (Collin Walcott,. Don Cherry, Nana Vasconcelos) with a piece commissioned by Haus der Kunst, entitled “New Light” (2012). Dorothy Darr’s film “Home” (2008) features Charles Lloyd and Billy Higgins making the innovative music for their innovative duo album, “Which Way Is East”. One of director Peter Greenaway’s early works was a portrait of Meredith Monk included in his film “Four American Composers”. The portrait is shown at Haus der Kunst, as is Meredith’s own film “Ellis Island”. The film “Sounds and Silence: Travels with Manfred Eicher” is also part of the exhibition. (In parallel with the Haus der Kunst events, a number of films which have influenced Eicher’s work, as well as films to which he has contributed as music producer, are being screened at Munich’s Werkstatt cinema during the exhibition period. Details of these will be published shortly).

The exhibition includes sound islands and listening posts where ECM music can be heard - including special anthologies compiled for the event by Manfred Eicher - as well as a spotlight on the label’s early graphic art directions with paintings, drawings and collages by Barbara Wojirsch and photography by Dieter Rehm. Session photography is represented with images by Roberto Masotti, Deborah Feingold, Ralph Quinke and others.

Accompanying the exhibition is a concert series, emphasizing the music of ECM today.
After a highly successful “preview” event at the Herkulessaal with Arvo Pärt’s “Adams’s Lament”, the music continues at Haus der Kunst with the Tarkovsky Quartet, with François Couturier, Anja Lechner, Jean-Louis Matinier, and Jean-Marc Larché (November 23), Anouar Brahem Quartet with Klaus Gesing, Björn Meyer and Khaled Yassine (November 24), Enrico Rava Tribe Quintet with Gianluca Petrella, Giovanni Guidi, Gabriele Evangelista and Fabrizio Sferra (November 25), Meredith Monk and Katie Geissinger (December 14), and a double bill of Alexei Lubimov and Thomas and Patrick Demenga, with Lubimov playing Debussy, and the Demenga brothers playing music of Bach, Paganini, Barrière and Demenga (December 15). More concerts follow in January and February.

An exhibition catalogue will be published in English and German editions by Prestel Verlag in late November.

For further details on the exhibition, see the Haus der Kunst website.